Page:The Supreme Court in United States History vol 1.djvu/218

190 Madison of Virginia to John Breckenridge. ^ But while in possession of the Executive and Legislative branches of the Government, the Republicans had no representative whatever in the Judicial branch, and such exclusion had a profound effect upon the history of the country. As has been seen, the distrust of the United States Courts by the Anti-Federalists had been rapidly increasing during the past years ; and the decisions and actions of the Judges, adverse to prac- tically every cardinal Anti-Federalist doctrine, and supporting the i>olitical tenets of the Federalist party, had gradually caused them to regard these Courts as a mere annex of that party. The Anti-Federalists had favored the confiscation of British debts; the United States Courts had denied the validity of State confiscation and had enforced the payment of these debts. The Anti-Federalists had opposed the carriage tax of President Adams, claiming it was a direct tax and unconstitutional; the United States Courts had sustained the tax.' The Anti-Federalists had been pro-French and unneutral ; the United States Courts, on the other hand, persistently upheld their juris- diction to enforce the international obligations of this country as a neutral. The United States Courts had sustained the English conmion law denying the right of expatriation — a doctrine which was anathema to the anti-English party in the United States. The

1 Breekmridge Papers MS8, letter o! May 26, 1801.

' As was said in the Columbian Centinel, Feb. 4, 11, 1801, in artidet explaining hostility to the Judiciary : *'The State Courts invariably decided against the recovery of British debts due from the people of Virginia. As soon as the Federal Courts met, British debts were (as th^ ought to have been) recovered. Is it strange that the Southern Jacobins should hate the Judiciary of the United States?" "They opposed the carriage tax as unconstitutional. Why?" asked the CenHnd sarcastically. '* Because the democratic Lords of Virginia. had ten carriages where the aristocratic husbandmen and yeomen of New England one." For the effect of the carriage tax, see especially debate in the House, March ISr-iSt, 1802. 7th Cong., Id Sea. ,